Restless
by Katasauras
Summary: Sarah encounters someone from her past and her dreams are more than they seem.
1. Chapter 1

It happened gradually, or, it must have happened gradually, because she doesn't believe she'd have survived (or that she wouldn't have checked herself into a mental institution) if her dreams were this intense initially. If her dreams had possessed that vital quality to begin with, she'd be feeling much more unstable, and probably would have had a mental breakdown long ago. But the gradual nature had caught her off guard, accumulating night by night. Her dreams seemed to be clearer, more vibrant, and at first it was somewhat enjoyable. The crispness of her memories was refreshing, since time should have dulled the images with its passing. Should have made her forget long ago. It was like revisiting a corner stone of her life. Being allowed a chance to see her past with older more experienced eyes. Maybe she was wiser, or just less likely to be biased in her own favor. But then the dreams started not to be memories at all, but took on a life of their own; brought her new images, new imaginings. But always they were of her companions from _that time._

And then there was the whispering.

That began last month, after she started actively avoiding sleep. Come 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, Sarah would finally lay her head down and…listen. Faint words, and laughter, muddled around her. They were somehow amplified by the darkness of her sparse apartment. She'd hear even though she was most definitely not asleep. She refused to listen close enough to find out if the tone was mocking or not. At one point she was moved to fright, and refused to sleep at all. But maybe that just provoked whatever was happening to her, because she _swore_she'd hear something regardless. When she'd be making another cup of coffee in her kitchen, or when she was in the shower. She couldn't be sure if it was her name she heard or not, and frankly didn't want to ponder it. Her fright, however, would ebb despite her better judgment. A sort of soothing heaviness would befall the room, and be both menacing and comforting at the same time. Her eyelids would be coaxed in to closing, and the thick air would slow her breath until she was back, trapped in her dreams until daybreak.

And now it was Tuesday. She awoke with a lingering image of a red, leather bound book, like an aftertaste left behind on the back of her tongue. She felt strangely rested even though she was only averaging a few winks here and there. Getting up, she committed herself to showering, and greeting the day with her usual routine. Her feet padded over to her bathroom. It was small, but had a decent tub, which honestly was one of the selling points in her buying the apartment in the first place. As the water hit her neck, and the hot steam created goose bumps on her skin, Sarah set to not thinking of the chilling implications of her nighttime "episodes." If she put too much stock in them she had to be crazy. 'Maybe it was a sort of sleepwalking. A seizure. Maybe my building's water has gone funky.' she mused.

After she rinsed, and patted herself dry she stepped to her dresser, which was really just a set of storage drawers beneath her bed that she procured at the nearest Ikea. She eyed her bed warily. It had been years since she had even thought about the Labyrinth in depth, and to suddenly have her sub conscious all in a flutter over something that probably never happened was disconcerting to say the least. Her nights seemed now twice as long as her days, and she was easily distracted from her work. Sarah had landed what she thought was the ultimate step towards her dream career. She was interning at a local publishing company. She remembered imagining meetings with up-coming authors, and consultations for new stories or maybe even a series. Fresh out of school, and still searching for a stable income, she really couldn't afford for her mind to wonder as much as it had been lately. The floor supervisor had warned her once already that she was starting to flounder. Well _warned_wasn't exactly the right word, _belittled_might be a more apt term.

'_Sarah, I thought you had assured me you were ready and prepared to take this position within our company. Really, if a few months are all it takes to get you to realize you're in over your head, you might as well quit while you're ahead. Or maybe, if you asked nicely, I'd diminish your already paltry workload.'_

Sarah gave a small huff of irritation, recalling the smug expression plastered on her superior's face. 'Travis is so…just…guh. If I wasn't relying on his review of my work and his recommendation later on, I'd have kicked his legs out on day one.' Sarah suspected he also held a slight interest in her, which she may have unwisely rebuffed with a cold look here and there, so there was some unfair residual anger coming her way from Travis's direction. It's not that he was bad looking, just that she had a strict rule on not mingling business and her personal life. Good thing too, because his personality was rotten, and she would have called it of regardless. On the other hand, she couldn't really blame him for flirting with her, given that all the other staff in her department were well over the age of 40, with her being merely 24, and Travis maybe just pushing 30. She had heard from Maria, her desk partner, that his father, a man with significant funds invested in the business, had helped Travis secure his high position at so early an age.

Sarah finished her coffee, and glanced at her watch. 'Hmm, 8:30. And today we're meeting with a potential author, so I don't really need to be there until around 1:00.' That was one of the perks of her job. There was a lot of work she could accomplish from home, and as long as she got it done, she had to spend only few hours here and there t her actual desk. She walked back to her room, thinking she might as well get her busy work done at home, instead of trying to drown out the sounds of her office-mates. Sitting down at her desk, she opened up her folder to examine her "work" which was really just the busywork that got passed down to her because no one else wanted to do it. Sarah looked at the charts, depicting which books were selling at which book stores, then went on to estimate how many to order for the next restock depending on the variables x, y and z. Eventually, she hit a rhythm of filling in numbers and order boxes, and her mind drifted off to the striking image of a red, leather bound book, with golden lettering emblazoned on the cover. . She shut her eyes tight, and tried to refocus them on the sheet in front of her, but ultimately her mind wandered again.

'_Sarah'_

Her head shot up, and a chill went down her spine. Eyes wide she listened intently. That time, there was no denying it, the mysterious whisper had said her name. The sound had played like it was in stereo, filtering in one ear and out the other, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. 'It's probably just stress. That, or I'm entirely bonkers.' She couldn't admit to herself that she was shaken, and that her reasoning was more than a little weak. She tried not to let it get to her, for that would mean that there was something actually happening to her. Sarah ran her fingers through he long, dark brown hair in frustration and anxiety, then rested her head in her palms, until she hunched down to lean on the desk, arms crossed, head face down in the crook of her elbow. 'I just don't understand this. Why am I remembering the Labyrinth at all, let alone _now,_when I need my mind to be clear most?'

Sarah took a few deep breaths, head still on the desk. 'They're jut dreams, they're not going to do anything to you,' she thought to herself. THe room was once again filled with a peculiar heaviness, and the air around her warmed and caressed her form. Her breathing soon evened, and slowed, and her eyelids fluttered until Sarah slipped off to a hazy sleep.

_She was clutching something. Not opening her eyes, she ran her hands along the item in her grasp. A cool, slightly textured surface met her. Her fingers danced along the edges, along the dips and engravings in the surface._

"_A book," she announced to no one at all. She opened her eyes to gaze upon the back. A textured, red, leather surface greeted her. Slightly pebbled, she caressed the spine and her gaze upon it's simple, graceful design. 'It couldn't be more than 200 pages…' she mused, taking in it's slender appearance. Turning the piece over, her eyes rested upon the gold lettering in the top center of the text._

"_Labyrinth" she breathed._

_The word fell from her lips like led. The letters on the cover were surrounded by black engravings, which were both elegant and sinister all at once. She opened the book, and was greeted with a waft of an ancient tomb, something that smelled much too old for a piece that looked so new. Before she could turn the first page she was taken from her inspection by a voice from…behind her? To her left? Her right? She couldn't tell. And turned her head side to side, eyes darting about trying to pinpoint its exact location._

'_Sarah' it resounded around her. This time, the voice was undoubtedly male. 'Sarah,' she heard again, nearly letting the text fall from her hands. 'Sarah," it said once more as she was about to turn around…_

"Sarah! Sarah, you there?"

Sarah's eyes shot open, and her spine arched upwards suddenly. Her breathing hitched and felt labored, and her brow set in a deep furrow.

"Sarah?" She turned her head to her beeping answering machine, locating the somewhat metallic quality of a voice that was undoubtedly her boss's. Still shaken, she reached to pick up the phone and settled it to her ear.

"uh…Hello?" She said, noting the dryness of her mouth as she spoke.

"Sarah! Do you have any idea what time it is? The meeting with our new client starts in less than 30 minutes, and we still don't have the printed prototype here yet! We were expecting you here over an hour ago with the copies in hand!" Travis was spitting fire over the phone. She could picture him pacing around the floor, running his hands through his shaggy hair, further disheveling his appearance. Her hackles raised at his tone, but her rattled mind made her bite her tongue, somewhere realizing it was she who was in the wrong here.

Still, her stomach dropped, as she glanced at the clock atop her nightstand. 2:00it glared at her. '_Shit, shit, shit, shit,'_was the extent of the thoughts that ran through her head at that moment. "I'm leaving right now sir! Picking them up on my way! It won't take long, I'll get there in time, I promise!"

"_Sarah! Sar-!"_She hung up the phone with a clang; cutting off whatever unproductive nonsense he was about to spout. She sprang for her coat, having no time to change into a more work appropriate outfit, tossed on her boots, and snatched her bag from the table. She slammed the apartment door behind her and made off at a sprint down the hall. _'Okay, okay, step 1: get into the car, step 2: drive to the printers, avoiding traffic and taking appropriate side roads, step 3: pick up, floor it to the office, and don't get into a crash in the process.'__She felt around in her pocket for her keys, then thrust them into her car door, with a resounding jingle. Strapping in, she pulled out of the lot and sped _slightly_down the street, until she hit the main road. She was on autopilot to the printers, having been sent there so many times before. She berated herself for falling asleep at all, let alone for _hours. _It would have made sense with how little sleep she was getting, except for how rested she felt when she awoke despite the restless evening.

"I guess I was more tired than I thought." Sarah stopped, and gazed at the red, iridescent glow from the stoplight. Briefly, a red cover danced across her minds eye. Shaking her head she continued on. "Okay, 1:45, I'm almost there and it takes less time to get to the office from the printers, I'm fine, I'm fine," she mumbled to herself. Sarah made a hard left once the printer's came in view, parking illegally in the lane. '_It'll only be a moment!__' she tried to rationalize to herself._

She sprinted into the building, and up two flights of stairs, to the third office on the left. Pushing the door open, she yelled "Pickup! Peterson and McAllister!" Spying the familiar face of Peter at the front desk, she knew her order would already be there, wrapped up and waiting for her. She asked him to put it on the company bill, and bid him adieu, as she rushed back to her car, parcel in hand. "Sorry I can't chat! I'm late!" she tossed behind her as she jogged back to her car.

Speeding away, she glanced at the dashboard, _'1:55,'_it read. She made a right to avoid any possible traffic on the main road, and sped her little compact car as fast as she dared. _'Two more blocks, pull into the garage…'_Sarah shut off the engine, grabbed the package, and sprinted to the third floor of the building. Her wrist watch was suddenly a heavy weight as she eyed it warily. _'This is really cutting it close!'_

Out of breath, she turned the corner, making her way to the conference room at the back end of the starkly lit hallway. Home stretch! I made it! Come on! Sarah pushed the door open, rushing inside, her view blocked by the precarious stack of wrapped books in her hands.

"Travis! I'm he-oof!" Sarah was suddenly no longer upright, she realized as her eyes opened to see the fluorescent light on the boardroom ceiling. She had collided with…something, or someone? Taking a second to process her new point of view of the world from the ground, she was readying herself to spout out a chain of apologies, and pickup the dropped packages containing the prototype of the new author's book. She began to spout out phrases of apology, "Listen, I'm so sorry, I was just a little la-" but came to the conclusion that she would be unable to finish _any_of her sentences today, when she had tentatively gazed up at whoever it was she had slammed into earlier.

Her breathing stopped, and she coughed on her own swallowed air.

Standing before her was a tall, looming figure, with wild blonde hair, which was poorly contained in a low ponytail at the base of the figure's neck. But what she noticed was his eyes, with differently sized pupils surrounded by an ice cold blue. They narrowed at her, and without any though Sarah whispered…

"Goblin King."


	2. Chapter 2

**Second chapter is now up! Thanks for your support. **

**Chapter 2**

Sarah's body was motionless, her breathing still. Wide eyes froze on the man looming over her sprawled body. Despite her static form, which by the way was still strewn about on the office room floor, her mind was reeling. The resemblance was uncanny. There was no mistaking it. The mouth, the nose, the eyes, the _hair, _as fresh as if she'd seen him yesterday, the exact image of the Goblin King was conjured in her mind. Suddenly she was a 15-year-old girl again. All of her defenses, her reasonableness, were completely stripped away. All of the rationalizing she'd done over the years of what she thought a very peculiar "dream_"_ came tumbling down around her. All the convincing, and conviction that she had just had a very, very overactive imagination in her teens was in the end fruitless, as her self-delusion lay beside her in a heap on the very real_, _very hardground.

'_No. No no no no no. What is happening? No way, no way, no way! That's it I've gone crazy. I am verifiably insane. Cuckoo. Looney. Need to visit the hardware store because my screws are not only loose, but completely gone.' _Immediately Sarah was startled back from her thoughts when the man in front of her moved to crouch down to her level. His legs bent as his arm darted towards hers and Sarah could only instinctually close her eyes, imagining the worst. She was panicking and far too addled to think or process rationally, and she was about to shrink away when-

She felt a hand curl around her arm and she was suddenly, very unceremoniously hoisted up. Her held breath came out in a small 'oof' as she was jerked upright, her legs floundering slightly for a firm footing.

"Excuse me, but are you all right, miss?" Sarah cautiously returned her gaze to the man in front of her, shaken from her musings by a deep, caressing voice that held a very distinct, very _familiar_ accent. '_Even the voice is the same. It's obvious.' _Were all of her senses betraying her? Weren't visual and audible hallucinations the sign of a serious case of schizophrenia?

In the brief moments that followed, Sarah thanked God that she managed to regain some composure. Her deer-in-the-headlights induced lapse in action allowed her addled brain a much needed moment to think. To realize that yes, this man in front of her looked, sounded, and had the same exact presence as the Goblin King '_from her dreams,'_ her mind supplied , so her dreams were now in her reality. She could deal. She was tough, she could roll with the punches. So what if her subconscious was suddenly becoming something concrete and a bona fide reality. Weirder things had happened... right? Yeah? Right?

Sarah, still unconvinced despite her brain's frantic churning, looked around to confirm her whereabouts. Office? Check. Irate Travis? Check and double check. Okay, she was undoubtedly at work. Which meant she was also undoubtedly on the chopping block, due to her lateness, and extremely clumsy maneuver upon entering the room. That thought brought her a moment of clarity. Her job could be at stake. And maybe it was the shock, or maybe she finally had the grace to accept her untimely decent into insanity, but whatever it was, Sarah's legs finally listened and she was allowed to straighten her skirt, and reply to the man's question with a curt, "Yes, thank you."

She returned to her perch on the ground to collect the fallen packages that had been strewn about the floor in her earlier tumble. Her hand reached for the box wrapped in that brown parchment-like paper. '_Okay. Just one thing at a time, Sarah. If you're going to have a mental breakdown, you're not going to do it in public. Let alone give Travis the satisfaction of seeing you unravel in his presence.' _She hoisted the first parcel into her lap, and was reminded once again that books, by nature, were unfairly heavy. She needed to start exercising again, or do more squats or something, because the weight on her thigh was very unwelcome and caused a bit of a struggle as she began to stand up again.

Despite her outward appearance, Sarah's senses were still in overdrive. That pesky adrenaline had put her on paranoid full-alert. With her hackles raised and ears on primed, she had to consciously restrain herself when she felt him stoop back down immediately to her left. Turning her head she saw a hand, '_a gloved hand,'_ she noted_, _approaching to rest on her shoulder.

"Are you quite sure? You seem a tad shaken." His eyes appraised her, and settled firmly to look upon her own. Taking in her silence, he continued. "Here, let me assist you with those." As she watched his hand approach the package that she was practically white-knuckling, Sarah considered his voice. And maybe she was imagining the almost mockingly pitying tone in the man's expression, or maybe that superior quality was just so associated with the Goblin King of her imaginings that she couldn't begin to separate from the notion that he had a major superiority complex.

And it was when she quickly averted her gaze, and rocketed to a standing position, packages still firmly in hand, turning her back to- whoever that was' hand still outstretch to receive them, that Sarah realized something. That it wasn't fear(or wasn't _entirely _fear) or some suppressed survival instincts that kept her reaction in check, but her deep-seeded stubbornness. Her down to the bone conviction that if this man was who her mind was trying to convince her he was, then god damn it she was going to make sure to be a force to be reckoned with. She wasn't a 15-year-old girl any more. She knew how to handle herself and conduct herself in a manner utterly intimidating and respectable. Placing the packages on the long table they used for meetings, Sarah turned to address her… still less-than-pleased boss.

"Sir, I'm very sorry about my tardiness. It was completely careless and short sited of me, please accept my apology and allow me to make it up to the company." Sarah was very careful not to say 'make it up to you,' because goodness knows how he could have twisted that thought in his head. And if she may have arched her back slightly to help, ahem, seem more amiable, that was purely coincidence.

"Yes…well, Sarah, we'll discuss it after the meeting." She noticed his eyes struggled to stay trained on her face. '_Good thing I didn't have time to get dressed for work this morning. This V-neck t-shirt may have just saved me from finding a new job.'_

"Yes, of course. If you will excuse me, I'll get back to work now." Sarah was never present during these meetings. Something about 'having to earn her chops,' before she could be seen as a credible junior-editor. And it was how many months later now? She was mid-step in her turn to march directly out that door. Towards freedom from the bizarre and horrible day she'd experienced. To a return to normalcy, where hopefully she'd never have to see that man's face ever again and she could go on with her life-

"Well, about that." That deep, accented voice caused Sarah to abruptly stop mid-pivot. With one foot suspended in mid air, her mind supplied her with dreams of escape. '_You could make a run for it. Pretend not to have heard. Come on feet!' _but to no avail. She was frozen to the spot.

"Yes, Sarah. You'll have to stay this time." Travis interrupted. "I was speaking with our visitor here just before you… arrived, and we think it best if you would stay for the meeting." At that moment, Sarah would have felt very justified to murder Travis on the spot. Instead she settled on a very pointed glare, which would have to do the job for now.

"Oh?" Her voice was poisonously sweet. "What do you need from me?" _Please, please change your mind. What are you doing Travis! The one time I need to count on your pig-headedness, you let me down? _Under normal circumstances, Sarah would have jumped at the chance to sit in on a meeting with an author. Normally she would have been elated at the prospect of progressing within the stagnant office-environment, at getting closer to her goal of being a full-fledged editor. But at this moment, she cursed her situation.

"Well, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have a new pair of eyes on the latest project. A sort of fresh breath of air, if you will. And, well, perhaps, you might start off with some basics, like attending these meetings, getting some of the grunt work out of the way…" Travis obviously was not too keen on the idea, if his shuffling around, and disgruntled face were any indication. He was flounder for ways to make this seem like an insignificant matter, that he put minimal thought in to, when to the onlooker, it was appent it vexed him to no end.

The stranger- or whoever he was- interrupted.

"What your boss is trying to spit out, is that the new author isn't satisfied with any of the editors currently on staff, and after taking a look at your _sparkling_ resume, believed you to be up to the task." He grinned a not so sincere grin, focusing his gaze on hers. Sarah could only hear _Editor. Editor. Editor. _Like a chorus resounding in her mind. She then remembered she needed to reply.

"And who is this new author, by chance?" She addressed with no small amount of tartness in her voice. What could she say, he brought out the worst in her without even trying.

His grin widened even more, and a ruthless mirth entered into his eyes. And somehow it felt like the word was holding its breath, and Sarah realized a moment too late what his lips were parting to say.

"Me."


End file.
